If you're color blind you may not be able to tell the difference, but on the left is the jack-o-lantern from Halloween that I cleaned, peeled, boiled, drained (lots!) and pureed. On the right is what's left from the canned pumpkin I bought at the store on Sunday to make pumpkin rolls. My question (since this is the first time I've processed a pumpkin) is, is the canned pumpkin possibly made from a pie pumpkin vs a jack-o-lantern pumpkin? Or, is the dark color from the processing? The canned pumpkin has nothing added to it, and the can said it was only pumpkin.

BTW, the one I processed is delicious with a pat of butter and a bit of brown sugar. I want to use my pumpkin to make some more pumpkin rolls tonight. The canned stuff may not be long for my fridge after tasting the fresh stuff. There will be nothing left to freeze when I'm done baking, because I will eat everything that remains!

Just for future reference, as pumpkins change from year to year with respect to sugar and water content, Nick Malgieri surprised me at one of his master classes when he said that he prefers to use canned pumpkin. He complained about the issue of all the fibers, too.

So, don't feel bad about using canned pumpkin. I just like to use the plain because I can add my own spices.

I think canned pumpkin is much superior to jack-o-lantern pumpkin, which is stringy and watery. Commercial pumpkins for pie are banana squash, blue on the outside, and weighing up to 60 pounds.

I sub butternut squash for canned pumpkin often, and love the flavor.

Interesting. I heard just the opposite (from friends who bake pumpkin stuff) that the pie pumpkins are much smaller than the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins, which can grow to 300# +. Yes, I did learn that they are stringy, and I actually put the pureed pumpkin in a linen towel and squeezed an unbelievable amount of water from it.

What I did learn from this trip down the path of "scratch" pumpkin rolls, was that my batter came out with too much moisture, and even with 18 minutes of baking, was still too moist compared to using the canned pumpkin. I did all the same processing of dusting the cake with powdered sugar and rolling it in the same towel as Sunday's roll, yet the cake cracked a lot. Sunday had no cracking at all. I made the roll this morning and put it in the fridge to cool at 8:00 a.m., and at noon it was cold, but not firm. The filling appeared to take on moisture from the cake, and would not cut nicely. As is my practice, I post my successes as well as my "learning experiences," so here it is (please hold the laughter until I leave the room)...

It tastes just fine, but is not something I would give as a food gift, which was my intent. I guess they will go in the freezer and be eaten over the coming winter months by family, who you can feed almost anything to.

Thanks for all your input during this project. I think I'll stick with my bread baking which I've got dialed in pretty well